George Carlin’s “Filthy Words”:
A Review Of The Effects On The Broadcast Industry
In 1978 a New York radio station owned by Pacifica Foundation Broadcasting was doing a program on contemporary attitudes toward the use of language. ... As a part of the program the station decided to air a twelve-minute monologue entitled "Filthy Words" by satiric humorist George Carlin. The introduction of Carlins "routine" consisted of, "words you couldnt say on the public air waves," (“Class Clown”). The introduction to Carlins monologue listed those words and repeated them in a variety of colloquialisms:
“I was thinking about the curse words and the swear words, the cuss words and the words that you cant say, that youre not supposed to say all the time. I was thinking one night about the words you couldnt say on the public, ah, airwaves, um, the ones you definitely wouldnt say, ever. ... The original seven words were shit, piss, fuck, cunt, cocksucker, motherfucker, and tits. ... This broadcast of Carlins "Filthy Words" monologue caused one of the greatest and most controversial cases in the history of broadcasting. ... The law said that certain words depicting a sexual nature were limited to certain times of the day. ... Carlins monologue was speech according to the first amendment (Gunther, 12). ... Therefore the question is "whether a broadcast of patently offensive words dealing with sex and excretion may be regulated because of its content. ... The Supreme Court deemed that these words offend for the same reasons that obscenity offends. They also state, "these words, even though lacking literary, political, or scientific value, they are not entirely outside the protection of the first amendment"(Gunther, 14). ... Carlins monologue was speech, there is no doubt about that, and it does present a point of view. Carlin tried to show that "the words it uses are ‘harmless’ and that our attitudes toward them are essentially silly" (Gunther, 41). ...
Many people in the United States do not deem these words as offensive. In fact many people use these words on a daily basis in conversation. ... Therefore, the Supreme Court looked upon Carlins monologue as indecent but not obscene. ... Before the broadcasters only had to worry about the "seven dirty words.
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